THE MOODS OF A PAINTER

Heritage Malta is presently hosting the second exhibition by Keith Balzan, who was introduced to the public just last year during his first exhibition Genesis. The success of this first showing was sufficient impetus to encourage Balzan to work towards a second exhibition in the short span of six months.

While his first exhibition was a collection of art works accumulated over a series of years, in Moods, Balzan presents a more homogenous picture of his capabilities. Working mostly in oils and a variety of mixed media, he has captured once again a sensational conglomeration of colour, the vibrancy of which verges on the disturbing. In fact it is visibly a play of moods that revert from dark to enthusiastic to introspective and back.

Start from the simplicity and cleanness of a small painting Caribbean Blue. This neat arrangement of colour strikes the eye with its aligned execution and leaves one feeling at peace with oneself. Yet, juxtaposed with harsher canvases, it becomes somewhat overwhelmed. A stridently strong canvas is Incoming Storm which, although a landscape of church and rooftops, proffers a lawn for a sky and crimson for the sea. Original colour choice? Perhaps, and yet it is much more.

Move away from landscape and towards a Young Pablo, a composition begun while Balzan was in Paris at the Picasso Museum. He superimposed his own immediate sketch over a Picasso image and by means of lines and varied appendages managed to achieve an effect that urges the onlooker to peer closely in order to find out more. Balzan’s take on Cubism is exemplified through a handful of paintings that are excellently executed, some with a palette that is softer and milder in quality than the rest, as in the case of Reclining Nude 2006.

His favourite canvas is From the Studio 2, which again provides an irreverent red sky that offers a kind of Martian landscape gleaned out of what should be evidently Maltese. The same treatment is provided to Sunset over the Valley and Country Road.

On to a different genre, two small aquarelles stand out for their technical superiority, detail and delicacy. Child and Fisherman are exceptionally well executed down to the minutest touch of the brush, exquisitely providing a clear-cut distinction between the youth of one and the seasoned age of the other.

All in all, Moods offers the spectator a good exercise in observation of the many facets of Balzan’s skills, throughout the entirety of the 42 pieces on show. From the Clutter and Contrasts, that is more than a mere image of Senglea’s skyline, which shows a fascinating play of colour and material on canvas - a tactile and visual experiment merged into one - through to the wooden wheels that portray a play of colour, captivating as much as it is intriguing.

Once again, Balzan has laid his soul bare for the keen observer to see. He does not stop at face value but homes in deeper to grasp the very soul of the onlooker. His paintings are staggering emotional passages, some of which seem to be struggling to break through, hemmed in by their constricting frame. The colours are screaming to be let loose and run riot further along the walls. If these paintings could only become larger, one would be assured of a truly immense emotional journey.

May 2007

Marika Azzopardi